Covid-19: alert to possible new variants

Faced with the prospect of a new wave of infections before the end of the year, the European Union (EU) is preparing to launch a campaign of booster doses of the vaccine against Covid-19.

The action will be carried out with adapted vaccines – which the EMA approved on Thursday (1st) – for the Ômicron variant and with those developed against the first strain of the virus – which first appeared in China in 2019.

But people “should not wait for a specific vaccine”, Marco Cavaleri, head of the EMA's vaccination strategy, told AFP. “There may be a new variant emerging that we cannot predict today,” he added. 

On Thursday (1st), the EMA approved the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines against the Ômicron BA.1 subvariant. 

Covid-19: new versions of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are authorized by the USA

United States health authorities have approved new versions of the anti-covid vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna laboratories against the omicron variant. The measure seeks to contain a possible new wave of contagion in the autumn and winter of the Northern Hemisphere.

In mid-September, the approval of a new Pfizer vaccine against the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of Ômicron is also expected. 

These vaccines adapted to Ômicron would be reserved mainly for the most vulnerable people, such as the elderly, pregnant women and workers in the health sector, highlighted Cavaleri. 

On the other hand, it is not “excluded” that new variants closer to the previous Ômicron subvariants will emerge this winter, the institution said.

(With AFP)

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